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Sought by Grassley, Berwick's tax forms are largely public info
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07/31/10 05:19 PM ET
Most of the tax forms for the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare
Improvement (IHI) — forms being sought this week by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — are available to the public online.
Missing from the postings on Guidestar.com, however, is IHI donor information, which has emerged as the focus of Grassley's interest.
Missing from the postings on Guidestar.com, however, is IHI donor information, which has emerged as the focus of Grassley's interest.
Berwick founded the Harvard-based IHI in 1991 and
served as its president and CEO until this month, when the White House
used a controversial recess appointment to place him atop the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Most of the IHI forms Grassley requested are on
display at Guidestar.com, an online database for Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) 990 forms. Not posted, however, are the Schedule Bs,
which list individual donor information.
To protect individual donors, IRS codes prohibit the agency from disclosing Schedule Bs.
The donor issue has emerged as the central focus of Grassley's inquiry.
"One of the many significant issues related to your
nomination that remains unresolved is the potential for conflicts
arising from donors to the [IHI]," Grassley wrote to Berwick. "The
public has the right to know whether the numerous and significant
policy decisions that you make are vulnerable to these potential
conflicts of financial interest."
Grassley added, "You assured me you would comply
with this request. … However, this information has not yet been
provided despite assurances from both you and the administration."
Release of the information is particularly important,
Grassley said, because the recess appointment denied lawmakers the
chance to question Berwick directly — a circumstance that's
"circumvented the open public review of your nomination," Grassley
wrote.
"As a result, an unfortunate shadow has been cast
over your suitability, legitimacy, and authority to serve as
Administrator during a critical time for CMS and the nation as a whole."
Grassley might not have the donor information he's
after, but the public 990 forms do include information on another topic
on the Iowa Republican's radar: the salaries of nonprofit executives.
Berwick's compensation while heading the IHI, the forms reveal, was $2.4 million in 2009, up from $1.4 million the year before.
Grassley
has recently questioned some nonprofit CEOs over their enormous
salaries. In the case of Berwick, though, the issue hasn't surfaced.
